Q Light Controller+

Good glad all is working, even if we don't know why

Make sure you video the show so we can all see what you are up to.

Woke up this morning and realized I forgot to say thanks to Massimo as well for the 4.8.1 version!

Here's a version of our 2012 Haunted house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BJX1j7 ... e=youtu.be

Noooooooooooooooooo !

What was working great this morning, well..., it isn't anymore.

I took a break. Had to do some other things.

Came back towards the end of the day. Opened QLC+ again, and decided I wanted to start from scratch as my previous attempts kept piling up stuff.

Added a new track to a new Show, imported my audio track and BAM! Out of sync again. The last few hairs I had let were gone just like that.

This is insane.

One question. Should I delete the Prefs file when upgrading to a new version, in this case 4.8.1?

Jeff, you should probably delete the preferences from 4.7.x to 4.8.x, but I doubt they're related to the audio playback.

I have to say that OSX has always been problematic for the audio playback in QLC+.
For my band, we programmed almost 3 hours of shows that needed to be in sync with a metronome.
We used audio tracks for reference but I remember we had to play each show over and over again from the beginning to be sure the lights were in sync.

We did all of this with Linux and in the end we were very happy about the results.

So, if you have the chance, use Linux. OSX doesn't really like open source software and everything is SO unsupported/unstable there.
As for Windows, it seems a little bit better than OSX but personally I wouldn't trust an operating system with blue screens around the corner.

Hi Massimo,

my problem is that the audio played through QLC+ does not follow the timeline of the real audio file. Somehow, QLC+ seems to speed up the playing of the file. Things that are supposed to happen at 32 seconds, happen at 25 seconds in QLC+.

I've exported my wav file at 44.1 kHz, thinking it would be the de-facto standard. I may try to export the wav file into a 48 or 88.2 kHz to see if there's a difference in the timeline.

I was so excited this morning when all seemed to work nicely and the timeline was perfect. I have no idea what happened between this morning and this evening to screw up the whole thing again.

I could never be a programmer. These things drive me crazy. Bless you to take that route!

Jeff I don't know if this will help but try re-linking you sound file to the audio track. I did have a slight issue once and this tided it up.

I think you are just deliberately breaking it for the attention

Is running QLC+ in an Ubuntu virtual machine on OSX a possibility? I guess the big question is whether the DMX dongle will work.

I wish!

Ok,

I went back to my old file. Got the audio onto a track. Audio follows the waveform.

Added a Sequence (just a 7 second flashing Par) and waveform does not follow audio anymore.

So, as soon as I try to combine any DMX output to the Audio, the timeline gets screwed up.

It happens whether it is in the Show tab, or if I build a whole scene within a chaser in the Function tab, then combine the two with audio inside a collection.

Something is throwing QLC+ out of whack when those 2 are combined.

Ok, since Mac OS was not working for me, neither Win8, and couldn't get any other info, I went on and installed the latest Ubuntu on a USB HD.

From the posts here, it seems that the linux version works as it should.

Booted from the Ubuntu drive ( and happily surprised that I may like Linux after all) and downloaded the Linux version of QLC+.

Couldn't install due to some dependency.

Off to the net again, and support faq says I have to compile my own to fix dependency problems.

Followed the procedures on the How-to page of Linux QLC+ and was never able to install. I would always get some kind of errors that prevented me from doing so.

How come is it so hard? So far I tried the OSX, the Win8 and the Linux version and none of them worked for me, for the same or different reasons.

I am not a computer illiterate (although I do not program, I can follow command line procedures) but this has been failure over failure for me.

Reading posts around here, some people got their QLC+ to work, why is it so hard for me?

Jeff, I've sent you a personal message.

Jeff, I'm sorry to read that you're running into this lot of troubles with QLC+.

Please give also this version a try:
https://sourceforge.net/p/qlcplus/discu ... /5ed9680a/

The audio playback is completely different from the Qt4 versions, so it might improve the OSX experience.

Thanks Massimo,

I just gave 4.8.2 a try.

Unfortunately, it acts the same.

The audio is in sync with the waveform and in real time as long as it is the only track played (whether it is in a show or a collection).

But as soon as I add a scene to the show or collection, the audio falls out of sync and speeds up. And every time I move the cursor, it changes sync.

Sorry to report that.

Got it. I'll get back to you in a day or 2. Thanks.

Couldn't get the Show to follow a real timeline, but the combination of Ableton Live and the Virtual Console made it work. Linking scenes and chasers to midi notes and combining a midi track with an audio track in Ableton was the key in this case.

It's a workaround until there's a fix for the Show tab.

Thanks to all who helped and to QLC+ ... kids will have a light show to contribute to the haunted house.

I'm back!

Sorry, had to create another user... It wouldn't let me log in under jeff.

Another year, another Halloween, another haunted house!

Every year, I scan if there's anything new on the block, and every year, I come back to QLC+.

It's the easiest and still very powerful software I enjoy to use.

Except, of course, the problem with audio sync to the scenes in the Show tab. That one is still there, but since there are workarounds, it's not so much a problem.
For a short little thing, it's not too bothersome to restart the show at the beginning every time I place a new scene.

For longer shows, it is a bother, since I can't pick up from the middle of the audio and verify that all is in sync.

Two solutions:

- the "analog" way.... Map the timings of the song and the scenes on a piece of paper. Add the scenes accordingly.

- the "digital" way.... Using an external DAW (Cubase, Logic, Ableton, ...) import the audio and create a MIDI track under it. Add MIDI notes to the events where scenes will be added, a different MIDI note for each scene. Map that MIDI note in QLC+ and voila, your audio will be in sync every time. There is a video I found while looking around the forum yesterday. Shows how-to use MIDI notes from a DAW to QLC+.

From this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alm3ZfLkQG4

Anyway, I'm still in the process of designing the haunted for 2015, and adding the lights to the audio.

Thanks again to Massimo for all the hard work put into QLC+, and I can't wait to see version 5 !!!

I may have stumbled on another workaround for using QLC+ only, and getting scenes to match up and sync to the music track.

I've only tested it briefly, but it seems to work.

I have a 15-minute soundtrack (Halloween) I made with eerie music and added fx sounds (screams, growls, etc...) throughout the track.

Trying to sync lights to the whole thing is nearly impossible as, to make sure the other tracks line up with the audio, I have to restart the show at the beginning each time. I can't start anywhere within the timeline because it does not sync that way. Only starting from the beginning ensures sync. It gets boring really fast!

So...

I split my show in one-minute sections. I will have fifteen 1-min shows. That's not too bad when I have to start at the beginning each time to sync lights to music.

I then created a chaser and added all the shows 1 to 15 in line within. Made the chaser go forward and loop.

Going to the virtual desk, I just got a button assigned to the chaser.

So, come Halloween, I just push the button and all the shows will play one after another, in sync, and all night!

This way, I don't have to use an external DAW, MIDI sync scenes to MIDI notes, and make sure QLC+ listens to the external DAW.

I only have QLC+ running, and it makes things easier to deal with.

I understand it works in my particular case, and it won't be for everyone.